Most of what’s left is in Vegas, natch.

With the much heralded Liberace biopic premiering on HBO this weekend, it’s worth a review of the late entertainer’s extraordinary taste in just about everything, from cars (a gold-plated Bentley) to clothes (a white mink cape with a 60-foot train) and jewelry (a 59-pound rhinestone). Michael Douglas, who got raves at Cannes for playing Mr. Showmanship, was decked out in the film with some original costumes and rings, on loan from the collection of what used to be the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas (where else?). The Museum, which at one time drew thousands of visitors a day, closed in 2010, although there is talk that it will reopen in the glow of film buzz. In 1988, a year after Liberace’s death, the entire Los Angeles Convention Center was turned over to an auction of some 2,400 items from his personal collection of stuff, including 31 lots of jewelry. In 2011,425 more pieces of Liberace’s possessions, including dozens of custom-designed gold and diamond rings, went up for auction. One highlight was a 14K gold and platinum ring set with marquise, round and baguette diamonds forming the shape of a candelabrum (what else?).

Read more and see images at Lewiston Daily Sun | Las Vegas Sun | Urban Art Antiques | Google

Each faces multiple charges.

Five people have been arrested in the robbery of more than $4 million in jewelry, watches and diamonds from Lenox Jewelry in Fairfield CT last month. The defendants are four men from Pennsylvania and another from New York City who broke into the store manager’s apartment, bound and gagged him and three others, drove them 40 miles to the store and forced them to open the door. Each of the defendants is charged with kidnapping, robbery and use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Read more at ABC | Shine Times

Or is the missing $2.6 million necklace just misplaced?

Oh come on: Jewelry thieves may have struck again at the Cannes film festival last night, as a diamond De Grisogono necklace worth $2.6 million disappeared during a party attended by Sharon Stone and Paris Hilton. The jeweler said that 80 bodyguards, local police, hotel security, and De Grisogono staff were all on duty, but, oops, the necklace went missing. A Cannes police source said authorities were investigating whether it was a theft, a problem of inventory or a loss.

Read more at Reuters | Shine Times

Deal would create $7 billion retailer.

Rumor no more: Saks is on the block. Sort of. Hedge fundmeisters Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (they own Dollar Tree, among other treasures) reportedly is considering buying both Saks Inc. and Neiman Marcus (which owns Bergdorf-Goodman) and then merging the two. Joining Saks and Neiman Marcus would create a $7 billion operation, the second-largest U.S. luxury department store chain behind Nordstrom, says Bloomberg.

Read more at Fortune | MSN | Bloomberg

Item has never been auctioned before.

The top four of the most expensive watches ever sold at auction are all Patek Philippe, and there may a new contender coming up next month. Christie’s will auction a c. 1900 Patek Philippe “grand complication” as the highlight of its New York Important Watches auction on June 11. It is estimated to fetch $1 to $1.5 million, but the watch has never been sold before – it’s never even been seen before – so who knows?

Read more at Jewelry News Network

Luxury biz just isn’t what it used to be, says CEO.

According to media reports, Saks Inc. has hired Goldman Sachs to explore “strategic alternatives” that may include a sale of the company, owner of 26 namesake stores besides the Fifth Avenue flagship. Saks CEO Stephen Sadove talked to analysts in conference call this week, during which he acknowledged that the luxury industry is not as “robust” as the surging Dow Jones Industrial Average might suggest. He added that luxury shoppers have become more “informed” and “particular.”

Read more at Bloomberg

New Zale’s CEO will see his old boss in court.

Terry Burman signed a two-year con-compete agreement when he left Sterling Jewelers in 2011 after a successful run. This being 2013, it is scarcely surprising that the 30-year industry veteran has gone back to work. What is surprising is that his new job is running Sterling’s chief rival, Zale’s, with which Sterling is currently engaged in a court tussle over the use of the word “brilliance.” Wall Street apparently thought Zale’s hiring move was, well, brilliant: The stock price spiked 30 percent on the news.

Read more at Forbes | Fox | Shine Times

Little guys can’t compete, she says.

A small business owner in New Jersey has launched a campaign to get Facebook to change its advertising rates. The social media company does not tailor its pricing based on the size the company buying advertising, says Jennifer Messina, and that’s not fair to the little guys. Messina has posted a petition on the web, charging that “You are taking away from my income and my ability to take care of my family and put food on the table. What a shame it is that you are so greedy that you have to take from the little businesses.”

Read more at Huffington Post | Change.org

The more hits, the more information is available.

Web analytics? That’s like, keeping track of how many people hit on your website, right? Although services such as Google Analytics provide technical support, only a quarter of small businesses do more than count heads. That’s not enough anymore. “How many visitors your website receives each day . . . is only one small component of what web analytics can tell you about the performance of your website.

Read more at Smallbiz Trends

It’s a tradition, OK?

The tabloid press here and in Australia is having a field day with 50-year-old Demi Moore’s dalliance with a 30-year-old Ozzie jeweler she met at yoga class. Turns out the lad is the third generation of a family of pearl divers. Turns out that there’s a tradition among teenaged pearl divers from his part of Australia to, well, insert a pearl under the skin of the penis. The guy does love his pearls: “When you see a beautiful pearl it makes your heart race and takes your breath away,” he says.

Read more at NY Daily News

This is not Glen Lewis’s first tornado.

The state’s biggest bridal jeweler may have saved the life of the mayor of Moore, Oklahoma, during this week’s devastating tornado. The mayor is also the owner of Lewis Jewelers in Moore, and it was in the store’s walk-in vault that he waited out the storm that killed at least 24 people and virtually leveled the town. Glen Lewis has been mayor since 1994, so he was on the job during the 1999 tornado took 36 lives, and the 2003 tornado that caused $435 million in damage. The flat Oklahoma prairie surrounding Moore has been more or less the tornado capital of the U.S. for the past 15 years. Says one meteorologist: “Nobody's established in science why one spot gets hit more than another.... This is simply the terrible luck of the draw.”

Read more and see images at NBC | CNN | Atlantic Cities

Liz Taylor’s 65-carat sapphire talks a walk in Cannes.

1972: For her 40th birthday, Richard Burton gifts Elizabeth Taylor with a Bulgari diamond necklace with a 65-carat center sapphire. 2013: Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain walks the Cannes red carpet wearing the necklace for a Bulgari promotion. 1972: Taylor is photographed frequently wearing the necklace and always looks like the proverbial cat that swallowed the canary. 2013: Chastain looks a little tight-lipped and queasy, as if she had just swallowed a canary.

Read more and see images at People

The year is young yet, but still.

Somebody may be dipping a little too deeply in the hot sauce over at the Taco Bell marketing department. The chain has kicked off a promotion by sending Taco Bell rings to a list of young women that one blogger snarkily calls “B-list models.” An accompanying note reads: “A wise woman once said, ‘If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it.’ We like you. So we wanted to give you this custom Taco Bell ring . . . You’re funny, cool and you like Taco Bell.” The rings. . . well, you just have to see ‘em. Suffice it to say that the hotly contested Ugly Jewelry sweepstakes for 2013 may already have a winner.

Read more and see images at Food Beast

Techies get married, too.

You wouldn’t expect a techie to just go out and buy a regular engagement ring, now would you? How about a ring with 23 little diamonds surrounding an LED display that lights up when the betrothed hold hands? “An awesome piece of work,” gushes one critic, “and one of the best jewelry bids we’ve seen in a long time.” There are others?

Read more and see images at Hackaday

Isn’t 20 months a little long to wait?

Las Vegas jeweler Rich Fedelleck is an artist with wax molds. "It's kind of like playing a violin,” he says. “You just got to have a knack." So the $20,000 Fedelleck invested in a new was machine was money well spent, he thought, until the manufacturer filled his order with a second-hand model that didn’t work. “Warehouse error,” said the company. Twenty months later, Fedelleck got tired of waiting and contacted a local TV station help line. "Two weeks later,” says the Joshua Bell of wax, “I got a complete new machine. Now I am happy.”

Read more and see images at KLAS

Price is falling along with that of gold.

The strength of the dollar – there’s a phrase you don’t hear much anymore – is doing a number on gold prices, but it’s silver that’s really taking a beating. The metal slumped over 4 percent on Monday, to $21.30 an ounce, and some analysts are predicting that $20 an ounce is soon to come.

Read more at Yahoo

The pair got $2.3 million in a single afternoon.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, as we all know, and that includes jewelry store robberies. Two armed thieves in hoodies walked out of Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry in San Antonio with $2.3 million in the middle of a March afternoon in 2010. Good police work – and the inevitable attempt by one of the robbers to sell some of the goods – resulted in the arrest of both men. The first of them goes on trial this week.

Read more at My San Antonio

Where there are stars, there is a trend.

Bracelets, necklaces: This is the age of stackable jewelry. So why not wedding rings? The Huffington Post turns its sites on this trend in the making, with tips of the hat to stars who have adopted it, including Sarah Jessica Parker and Reese Witherspoon.

Read more and see images at Huffington Post

In New York, it could cost $300,000.

“Astroturfing,” they call it: Merchants who post glowing fake customer reviews on local review sites on the web. The practice has a name, and now it has legal consequences. New York State this week fined a cosmetic surgery clinic $300,000 for posting bogus endorsements.

Read more at NY Times

NYC retailers are going into the food business.

The Swarovski store in lower Manhattan – home of the $400,000 crystal chandelier -- is getting noticed for its wiener schnitzel ($26). Swarovski is one of several NYC retailers, from Armani to ABC Carpet, opening restaurants on the premises. One critic calls Café Kristall (what else?) a “sedate retreat from SoHo bustle, with its own entrance in the rear of Swarovski’s swank boutique.”

Read more at NY Daily News

Security expert puzzled over lack of safeguards.

There may be a hint of something fishy in the air on the French Riviera and it ain’t coming from the Mediterranean. Last week’s robbery of Chopard jewelry from a hotel at Cannes has at least one security expert scratching his head, wondering why the rocks were tossed into one of those room safes designed for wallets and passports, and left all alone until the wee hours. Says John J. Kennedy, president of the Jewelers Security Alliance in New York City, anyone accustomed to traveling with expensive merchandise should know “You can’t leave goods unattended in a hotel room.” The whole incident has the plot of a movie that would never make it to the Cannes Film Festival: Thieves break into the safe while Chopard is hosting a party following the premiere of a film, “The Bling Ring,” about a gang of teenaged thieves in Beverly Hills. First reports said the perps got away with more than $1 million-plus worth of loaners intended for the necks, ears and wrists of film stars on various red carpets. No, said Chopard, the take was a lot less, and none of it was from the shock-and-awe collection. Whatever the real value, Kennedy thinks it is too small to have been the work of any of the serious jewelry-theft gangs working the world’s resort circuit. Plus, he says, “I don’t know what their insurance protocol called for, but you’d think there would be some measures in place. There are tens of millions of diamonds and jewels out at the Academy Awards and they have armed guards, vaults, big security firms, everything you can think of.”

Read more and see images at The Daily Beast

Growth is back to single digits.

Global sales of luxury goods are off to a slow start in 2013 and aren't expected to match the double-digit growth of the last three years, says consultancy Bain & Co. Sales of luxury apparel, accessories, jewelry, cosmetics and art are expected to grow just 4 percent to 5 percent in 2013, to between $283 billion to $286 billion, according to Bain's study. In 2012, sales in the luxury category rose 10 percent to $272 billion.

Read more at USA Today

He specializes in rings for the tire-conscious.

A day off may find Rhode Island jewelry designer Brian Bergeron looking for inspiration at Goodyear. "I've always liked tires, he says. “You go into a tire shop to get new tires and you can wander around for a long time. I think they're really an attractive part of the vehicle.” Bergeron is apparently not alone in his appreciation; his Tire Rings line is selling briskly across the U.S. and even internationally. Available in gold and silver, the rings are engraved with car, motorcycle, mountain bike and dirt bike tire tread patterns. Best seller: Interco Tire Corp.’s Super Swamper. What a tread!

Read more and see images at Tire Business

Sales are up more than 50 percent so far this year.

Baby boomers are selling up and moving on. In the first three months of this year, small-business sales jumped 56 percent year on year over 2012. "Baby boomers are where we're really seeing the growth,” says California business broker Dave Richards. Retirement was the No. 1 contributor to business sales in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2013, according to a survey by Pepperdine University and two trade groups, the International Business Brokers Association and M&A Source.

Read more at NBC

Sales up to nearly $1 billion in quarter.

The demand for gold jewelry in the U.S. is up for the first time in more than seven years, according to a report by the World Gold Council. The report says gold jewelry demand in the U.S. grew by more than 5 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, to $986 million. This is the first increase in demand since the third quarter of 2005. In China, where governmental leaders are calling for restraint in spending, demand for gold jewelry nonetheless rose 19 percent in the same period. In India, demand is up 15 percent. China and India, by the way, now account for nearly two-thirds of the world gold jewelry market.

Read more at Forbes

Abercrombie & Fitch marketing approach may be “crazy like a fox.”

The web is overflowing with outrage over the admission by its CEO that Abercrombie & Fitch wants only attractive, svelte, “cool kid" customers. “One’s first reaction is probably that (CEO Mike) Jeffries is a world-class jerk,” says a Forbes magazine blogger. But “before we write off Jeffries as an out-of-touch elitist,” says the writer, “retailers have to acknowledge that his obnoxious, exclusionary comments . . . sharpen the brand identity of Abercrombie & Fitch, and portray its customers as a select group – young, attractive, and popular. When he says he doesn’t want customers who don’t fit that image, he’s making his current customers more loyal and making the prospect of becoming a customer more attractive.”

Read more at Forbes

Company will support ethical sourcing for gold.

Where there are movie stars, there is Chopard. The jeweler that famously graced the neck, ears and wrists of Jennifer Lawrence during her triple-crown run at this year’s award ceremonies, Chopard is all over the red carpet at Cannes this year – which is fitting, as the company designed the Festival’s Palme D’Or trophy. Chopard announced at Cannes that it will partner with the Alliance for Responsible Mining to ensure that its gold, like its diamonds, comes from ethical sources. Chopard also chose Cannes to unveil a new collection of 66 pieces inspired by classic films.

Read more and see images at NY Times

Diamond sets another new auction record.

Harry Winston went shopping under its new management this week, and went home with a 101.73-carat pear-shaped diamond for $26.7 million – a new world auction record for a colorless diamond. Christie’s had estimated that the stone would sell “in the region of $20 million,” but Winston has long been a company known to get what it wants. With the new money of Swatch now behind it, that tradition lives on. The company immediately named its new treasure the “Winston Legacy Diamond.”

Read more at Forbes

New catalogue is full of gizmos and gadgets.

Hammacher Schlemmer’s new gizmo-and-gadget-filled catalogue features a Jeweler's Gold Authenticator, which avoids the need for "messy gels, staining chemicals, or dangerous acids," typically used to test gold: $499.95. Also available is a replica of the Zoltar arcade wizard from “Big,” $9,000, including "23 different printed fortunes."

Read more at Go Erie | Hammacher Schlemmer

What will she haunt if store closes?

Barring a sale to another jeweler, DuPuis et Fils in Jackson MI will go out of business next month. The problem is, what will become of the ghosts? Founded in 1903 by William and Maud Bugg, the store itself was built under their ownership in 1929, and Mrs. Bugg, at least, has never left. “I’ve seen her,” says Sandra DuPuis, who is acquainted with at least two other spirits in residence. “They’re protective ghosts,” she says. “They look out for us and the store.”

Read more at Michigan Live

Nightmare continues for Arizona couple.

Other than a Rolex from his collection, British chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsay wears a Protection and Luck necklace, a gift from his wife, that is supposed to repel negative vibrations and impose serenity. “Serenity! Are you @%&^$*#$ kidding me?” as Gordon himself might say on “Kitchen Nightmares,” the long-running series in which he spends a week trying to prop up a failing business. For only the second time in 100 episodes, Ramsay walked out on a restaurant as unsalvageable recently, and in the mountain of repercussions there is a valuable lesson for any retailer: No matter what anybody says about you, never, ever get involved in an on-line war.

Read more and see images at NY Daily News | Energy Muse

“Over the top” and “Cracker Jack prize” among comments from People readers.

Hardly a stranger to publicity, Los Angeles jeweler-to-the-stars Neil Lane – customers include Angelina, Demi, Charlize and other one-namers – is staying out of the little Internet kerfuffle sparked by the ring he designed as a seventh anniversary gift from Dean McDermott to Tori Spelling. With less than a week to fill the order, Lane came up with an 18k gold band supporting a spinning top of 150 rose-cut diamonds. “It’s a diamond ball, a little diamond world, and Tori can spin it on her finger,” sang Lane to People magazine, which ran a picture and asked for comments. A few posters thought it was touching; but as so often happens on the Internet, negative opinions were louder (and more creative). “Crackerjack prize,” snorted Susan, while NEL.ITA looked deeper: “I always feel like these over the top displays of love are hiding deeper rooted marital problems.”

Read more at People

Airport security is a problem.

TV star Mindy Kaling (“The Office,” “The Mindy Project”) is every jeweler’s dream customer, but they hate her at airports. She wears so many bangles and beads that it takes her 30 minutes to get through security. "I like jewelry that's big. I like conspicuous jewelry!" Kaling tells Us Weekly. "For the most part, I like for my jewelry to make me feel dainty -- not the other way around."

Read more and see images at US Weekly

In another few years, everyone will be doing it.

All the hoopla over 3-D printing suggests a new world of variety in the jewelry marketplace, says Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of one 3-D printing company. “What you do is you design the jewelry and you put it in your shop. There is no upfront cost. We tell you what it costs to manufacture and you mark it up, and all of a sudden you’re in business and you can start selling. I’d say in five or six years, when all the designing software is simple enough, anyone will be able to make their own jewelry.

Read more at NY Times

Sculptor got tired of wearing Neosporin behind her ears.

Because she is one of the 50 million people in this country allergic to nickel, Oklahoma sculptor and teacher Holly Embry always had trouble wearing jewelry, especially earrings, the posts of which typically contain the metal. For years, she tried coating her earlobes with Neosporin, but that got tired eventually so Embry, a sculptor and teacher, decided to produce her own line of hypoallergenic jewelry. A self-described “fun-loving, crafty chick who lives in a vintage house in Broken Arrow,” Embry says the line alerted her to a world of opportunity in jewelry design. Most of her pieces are made of gold or silver, but she advises, "Think outside the box - think about fabrics and plastics.”

Read more at Tulsa World

Revenues were up nearly 40 percent.

Not quite a month ago, Forbes magazine was reporting on the “Spectacular Rise and Sudden Fall of Pandora,” with the company still struggling mightily to recoup after a disastrous 2011. Not to worry. Pandora is reporting a bang-up first quarter for 2013, with revenues up 40 percent year-on-year to nearly $350 million, and profits up almost 30 percent to $76 million. The company did well in every region of operations, including a 38.6 percent jump in the Americas.

Read more at Forbes | Shine Times

Take a lesson from Asian markets, one suggests.

With gold no longer quite so sure a thing, some analysts are suggesting that diamonds may turn out to be an investor's best friend. With an exchange-traded fund backed by diamonds due to roll out sometime next year, supporters of the idea admit that they need to educate investors in North America on the advantages of diamonds as investments. "America views diamonds primarily as pieces of jewelry; in places like India, China and Russia, people traditionally have viewed them as investible assets," says Kristopher Schellhas, managing partner and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Investment Diamond Exchange.

Read more at MSN

The doctor is out.

Alexis Gopal has done alright for herself in the seven years since she checked out of her career as a primary-care physician and began to pursue her childhood interest in jewelry design. It was a phone call from her then-six-year-old daughter’s teacher that did it, says the Connecticut resident, whose work shows up regularly on red carpets. "Your daughter is crying, the teacher told her. “She said she hasn't seen you in five days." Although she retains her license to practice medicine, Gopal resigned from her job that day.

Read more at Connecticut Post

CORRECTED ITEM: Revised story below.

A fancy yellow diamond from the collection of actress Gina Lollobrigida brought nearly $3 million at auction in Geneva Tuesday, with part of the proceeds marked for stem-cell research. All in all, 23 of Lollobrigida’s jewels were auctioned by Sotheby’s, for a total take of $5 million. The 74.53-carat fancy yellow diamond once belonged to Ahmad Shah Qajar, a one-time the shah of Persia; its sale set both an auction record and a record price per carat ($40,061) for a fancy yellow diamond, according to Sotheby’s.

Read more at Washington Post

Retailer warns of future moves.

Beware the e-merchant who not only eludes sales tax but can afford to sell below cost, warns a third-generation retailer in a New York Times blog. “Why would a company choose to operate without a profit? Because it wants to provide great value? Check. Because it wants everyone to love the brand? Check. Because it wants to gain market share? Check. Because it wants to put everyone else out of business, so that it can one day flick a switch to raise prices and make a fortune? CHECK!”

Read more at NY Times

Strong first quarter shows $6.99 billion in sales.

Go figure. With job growth stagnant and taxes up, U.S. shoppers are scarfing up jewelry at an exhilarating pace. NRF figures are just in for March, and once again jewelry stores did better than anyone else (yes, Virginia, even electronics). Sales for the month rose a hair less than 10 percent year on year, bringing first quarter sales to a healthy increase of 8.2 percent. The quarter’s sales of $6.99 billion came as the jewelry CPI continues to fall (-2.8 percent in March). Department stores aren’t doing so well. Sales estimates fell 6.9 percent year in April.

Read more at Diamonds.net | Shine Times

Bradley Cooper brought roses.

These days, a video camera is as indispensible as a ring at marriage proposals but Today Show host Savannah Guthrie went one better – a lot better – with a live national on-air announcement of her engagement over the weekend. Bradley Cooper gave her roses on camera. Sure beats a mariachi band on the beach.

Read more and see images at NY Daily News

She lost everything in less than a minute.

So what do you do after five men in hooded sweatshirts smash your store to bits and make off with $250,000 worth of merchandise in a mere 46 seconds? If you’re Gigi Ozasi of Riverside, CA you regroup and open a new store. While Gigi's Fashion Island Jewelers location in Hemet, CA remains closed, she opened a new store in November, six months after the crime. The store — called Gigi's Fine Jewelry and Gifts — will have its official grand opening this month, close to the one-year anniversary of the robbery. Meanwhile, the resilient jeweler still has two other businesses — Hope Diamond & Company as well as a second Fashion Island Jewelers location.

Read more at Press Enterprise

TV station gets a check from Penney’s

Consumer-action lines scored two jewelry hits this week, one ending sweetly, the other not so much. On the good side, a woman who received the wrong ring from a jeweler in suburban Washington DC got not only the help she asked for but also flowers and a $1,000 gift certificate from another jeweler, Mervis Diamonds, who “decided we wanted to give Laura a Mother’s Day surprise to re-instill her faith in retailers.” The faith of a California couple may be wavering after a go-round with J.C. Penney over a defective engagement ring. The store admitted a problem with the setting, but it took a call from a local TV station to actually get the couple a refund check.

Read more and see videos at WUSA | CBS

Ronaldo claims irreparable harm from Southern Link.

More copyright trouble in the jewelry trade: Ronnie Needham, a/k/a Ronaldo of the Indiana-based Ronaldo Designs, is suing Southern Link of Georgia for allegedly ripping off several of its designs. Needham maintains that the infringement – which includes alleged copies of its best-selling “Prayer Bracelet” – began in 2012 and has caused irreparable harm. Ronaldo seeks damages. Judging from the word “irreparable,” we’re guessing a lot of ‘em.

Read more and see images at National Law Review | Georgia IP Litigation

“Prime Time” knows a thing or two about jewelry.

Deion Sanders was a star in two sports and shone like a diamond in both of them – literally. During his careers in both baseball and football, Sanders was known off the field for an extravagant taste in jewelry that earned him the nickname “Neon Deion,” which Sanders didn’t like. He preferred “Prime Time,” and that’s what he wanted to be called, and soon enough he got his way. As he usually did: “They don’t pay nobody to be humble,” Sanders once said. Now a sports announcer, Sanders will deliver the keynote speech at the SMART Jewelry Show Dallas, August 24-26. Sanders will speak at 8:30 am on Saturday, August 24. “Deion knows a few things about having a great fourth quarter, and we're sure he will inspire and motivate jewelers to create a game plan for their all-important fourth quarter sales season," says show director Jim Reed. “He has an incredible story and strong ties to the Dallas community. Regardless if your goal is to be a famous pro athlete or the most famous jeweler in your neighborhood, you won’t want to miss 'Prime Time' in action.”

Read more at Shine News | Sports Illustrated

“Terrorism” designation could prove complicated.

Retailers and other small businesses affected by the Boston Marathon bombings may have a tough time collecting insurance money for losses sustained. Most business losses resulted from closing Boylston Street as a crime scene, not the April 15 blasts that killed three and injured more than 260. But President Obama has declared the incident an act of terrorism, and few policies cover such acts. "A lot of businesses in the Back Bay will be greatly harmed if they do declare it terrorism," said bar owner Chris Jamison. "I basically would have no plan whatsoever."

Read more at Boston Globe

Judges will rank business proposals and award $50,000.

Texas jewelry designer Kendra Scott will be a regular panelist on a new CNBC show in which three struggling business vie for $50,000. Scott knows a thing or two about struggling; she started her new flourishing international business on an initial investment of $500.

Read more and see images at My San Antonio | CNBC

Popularized colored diamonds 30 years ago.

Any man with a 24k gold Rolls Royce is worth a nod of attention from the jewelry industry, but for Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei, it doesn’t stop there. His Majesty The Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, as he is formally known, is a major force in the international gem market. His purchase of a one-carat red diamond 30 years ago (for $880,000 against a $50,000 reserve) pretty much began the enduring trend toward colored diamonds. The Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei is among five of history’s most noteworthy jewelry collectors, including Tutankhamen, King Henry VIII, and J.P. Morgan, profiled by the Wall Street Journal. The fifth name on the list you only get on the other side of the pay wall.

Read more at Wall Street Journal

Well, Chanel thinks so.

The recent Metropolitan Museum Costume Gala, a major event on the NYC social scene, has been taking some flak for its punk theme. “It sucked,” said Gwyneth Paltrow, adding “we’re too old” to be wearing punk designs. Karl Lagerfeld apparently didn’t get the memo: His new summer line for Chanel includes punk-inspired jewelry appropriate for the faux-hawks sported by his models. “Giant chain chokers and thick cuffs, everything was piled on two-by-two, including the bracelets, which everyone wore on both wrists a la Wonder Woman,” reports one fashion journalist. “I'm wondering if this is a trend that's going to stick around.”

Read more and see images at US Weekly